From Messrs. Low & Co. we have received a large series of sheets, comprising some hundreds of woodcuts, apparently supplied by blocks prepared to illustrate a German newspaper, or books, with scraps of German texts, and styled Deutsche Bilderbogen für Jung und Alt. In the great variety of these cuts are many of all sorts of merit and demerit, except the highest and the lowest. A few examples of diablerie in solid black are capital (vide No. 14); the hunting scenes are poor in all respects, except those (No. 40) of 'Hunting the Lion,' which have a good deal of humour. The subjects comprise Grimm's 'Hans in Glück,' illustrations of childish ways, No. 8, 'Der Bauer und der Kobold,' 'Der Wilde Jäger,' 'Bilder aus der Wüste,' 'Klosterleben,' 'Der Angler,' and others which are by far too numerous to mention. Altogether there is such an abundance of illustration, and so much that is satisfactory, in these things, that we think no one can do wrong in buying them, especially as they are very cheap. Of the same class we have, from Messrs. Trübner & Co., Illustrated Flying Sheets for Young and Old,' twenty sheets in a stiff cover, which differ from the last in being coloured, and, being selected from the mass, do not consist of the good examples only; yet there are many of that sort. The colouring is inoffensive, if weak. Messrs. Seeley, Jackson & Halliday send us The Miller's Children, with coloured illustrations by Oscar Pletsch, illustrations for which we care little; they are even tamer than the average of German "illustrations "; the text is "goody" in a high degree. From the same publishers comes Tiny and Puss, translated from the French of J. P. Stahl, with illustrations by M. L. Frölich. Of this text we need say nothing; as to the illustrations, they are peculiarly unpleasing to us, on account of their artistic shortcomings, bad drawing, disproportioned figures, pretentiousness and real weakness. These are the worst of M. Frölich's productions so far as we know. Likewise from the same firm we have Holiday Pleasures, with illustrations by M. R. Geissler, a book of which the illustrations are of much better quality than the above, while the text is not so good. For the kind of work in question there is little to be desired in the plates to this book, except force of effect and vigour of design; on the other hand, they are neatly and freely drawn; the figures are well designed, expressive and suitable. From Messrs. S. W. Partridge we have Our Feathered Companions, by the Rev. T. Jackson, a book of which the letter-press is readable and instructive, designed for older children than those to whom the before mentioned publications appeal, and accompanied with many neat wood-engravings, a few of which are considerably above the average in merit. PROF. RUSKIN ON SCULPTURE. THE subject of the Third Lecture delivered by Mr. Ruskin, at Oxford, during the present Term "Likeness in its Relation to Sculpture." was It is from the Greeks that we learn all the chief characteristics of sculpture. 1. Sculpture is only concerned with the representation of organic life and of such noble objects as surround life. Every accessory which does not tell of life and action must be discarded. In the best period of Greek sculpture the horse was furnished with a bridle, but all other trappings were omitted. 2. The function of sculpture is to represent only what is most honourable and noble in life. Here it differs from painting, which omits nothing, and passes over no detail, however painful, and even repulsive. We may paint a little child in rags, but we may not sculpture him. 3. It must not only represent the spiritual power seen in the form of any living thing, but it must so represent it as to show that the sculptor himself loves what is noble and honourable. Without this sculpture is sure to fail, however grand its subject. There are three objects at which sculpture must aim in all its works: to limit what is indefinite, to correct what is inaccurate, to make human what is monstrous. But at the same time the object of the highest sculpture is the real, not the ideal. All second-rate artists tell us that first-rate Art aims not at resemblance but at some kind of abstraction. This is not the case: a good portrait sets the man before you, a good landscape sets the scene before you; a sculptor ought to make the marble scem to breathe, to bring before you the very person whom he represents. Abstraction belongs to decadence in Art; in the best Art all is real. The test of its excellence is, whether it creates in the spectator a wish to see the reality. The Jupiter of Phidias makes the beholder long to see the God-the noblest Madonnas stir up a desire to gaze on their divine prototype. This test is fulfilled in the productions of the best period of Greek sculpture. The fifth century was perhaps the climax of Greek Art. There were three centuries of advance and development, from the ninth to the seventh-three of the best Artduring which we find all the characteristics of the noblest sculpture-realism, distinctness of detail, animation, life, when the figure seems to breathe, and the eyes to throw back glance for glance upon the spectator; and lastly, three centuries of decadence and corruption, from 300 to 100 B.C. This last period is distinguished by softness, attention to detail, without the clearness of the second period, and by a tendency to individualism. 4. Sculpture must be the representation of internal devotion, or what the sculptor feels in his soul, as well as what he sees with his eyes. In the present day we have lost that devotion, and have to take it second-hand. Our devotion is a devotion to domestic interests, not to external beauty, and our most vigorous school is consequently the domestic school. But there is another influence which is degrading Art: our ideal of life is material success; our manufactures are the boast of England; and therefore our Art follows our ideal. The ideal of Greece was a God-made man; the ideal we worship is the self-made man. The Greek ideal had no independence, but lived in complete submission to the influence of law and right, and was surrounded by all that was beautiful. In the finished works of Greek sculpture we see the result of this ideal upon Art. Our ideal is proud of his independence; he pushes his way, and considers submission as mean and unworthy. If Art is to flourish among us, we must have good laws; right and equity must be prevalent; people must have beautiful things about them; they must not consider poverty of purse or of spirit a degradation. It is only then that we can hope to see Art influencing the popular mind, and teaching its true lesson by recalling all that is truly noble and honourable to the thoughts and hearts of the people. In his Fourth Lecture Prof. Ruskin explained the "Method of Structure to be pursued in Sculpture." It is not true to say that Greece idealized; on the contrary, the most marked feature of her Art is that she realized. She sought the beautiful only so far as it was consistent with equity and justice and sound sense. She required that the object should be a rational one, determined on only in accordance with good sense and discretion; that the work should be a modest and temperate one, proportioned to the necessities of man. Hence Greek Art was singularly small in scale; for the Greeks knew that you cannot, as some modern architects seem to think, command grandeur by magnitude. There are two leading laws of structure in the province of sculpture: 1. The tools used must be such as can be handled only by men. The highest Art must not be possible to the weak, but must require both strength and delicacy: no instrument should be employed in the highest Art, which cannot be used both with force and with the most delicate nicety. 2. The substances used must be the substances of nature. It is very rarely that artificial substances are good subjects for the work of the sculptor. Man is surrounded by materials for his ingenuity, just as animals by materials for their food. The two materials for sculpture are clay and stone. Glass is merely clay which grows clear as it cools; metal is merely clay which grows opaque as it cools. Corresponding to these two materials, we have two kinds of sculpture-the Plastic and the Glyptic. Sculpture in clay includes pottery and tile-work, from which the Ceramicus and the Tuileries respectively derive their names. Sculpture in stone includes alike wood-engraving and group-sculpture. The first step in sculpture is the incised outline; then the various details are gradually elaborated: in order to give the proper shadow it is found necessary to cut away the background; it is also advisable that the work should be protected-and hence most sculpture is placed or left in a panel. For one form of sculpture, viz., Bas-relief, a flat surface is necessary. There are three styles of bas-relief: 1. That which is essentially flat, where the carving into the stone does not run more than half or three-quarters of an inch deep. We see this style both in the Greek and Lombard bas-reliefs. The Elgin marbles are an excellent example of it: all the work is done by vigorous and bold incision. All great sculptors work themselves with the chisel. The modern practice so common among sculptors in Rome, of modelling themselves in terra-cotta, and leaving it to mechanical workmen to reproduce their designs in marble, is essentially bad, however great the skill of the workman, because it is in the character of the incisions, in the vigour and delicacy of the strokes of the chisel, that a great part of the beauty of the work is found, -in the actual incisions of the graving instrument. Without this, energy of hand, fire, delicacy of touch on the part of the sculptor, are entirely lost; it is impossible for a merely mechanical copyist to reproduce the flowing tresses of a head of hair. 2. Rounded bas-relief, applicable to stone, but chiefly found on coins, where a lump of metal is rounded off so as to present the appearance of a boss, and produce immense breadth of light and shade and an easily-attained effect. 3. The undercut style of bas-relief, where it is joined to solid sculpture. We find this style principally used to round and soften off the angles of buildings. It often occurs on the Venetian palaces. In all the best sculpture we must remember that everything tells of life. The Greek sculptor ignores every detail which does not suggest life. In a chariot, he cares nothing about the form of the chariot or the details of its mechanism, and throws all his interest into the living figures, and after them into the reins, bridles, whip, &c. Fine-Art Gossip. MR. MACDOWELL has resigned his membership of the Royal Academy, on account of ill-health. He was born in 1799, elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1841, and a full member of the body in 1846. MR. G. SCOTT, who was taken ill at Chester, a short time since, has so far recovered that it has been found practicable for him to remove to his home at Rook's Nest, Surrey, where he proposes to remain until his recovery, which, however, may be a work of time. IT is reported that the First Commissioner of Public Works is inviting tenders from sculptors for the completion of the Wellington monument in St. Paul's, originally entrusted to Mr. A. Stevens, whose default in the matter we referred to at length some months ago. Unless this proceeding illustrates a characteristic method of obtaining from Mr. A. Stevens himself a tender on which a new commission can be based, it is difficult to forbear describing it as at once absurd and unfortunate. Of course, no sculptor of note will enter into competition with the artist, whose unbusiness-like conduct has brought so much trouble and loss to himself and the public. Nevertheless, a means of binding him by a new contract might readily be discovered; while the idea of another sculptor happily completing the work which he has advanced so far, is anything but promising of good fortune. MR. PENNETHORN, late architect to the Office of Works, has been knighted. THE autumn issue of the annual publications of the Arundel Society has been delayed, since two of the chromoliths after Albert Dürer, although completed, are in Paris, and, owing to the siege, cannot be forwarded to London. ALTHOUGH the Nemesis of a spurious enthusiasm has fallen on the Albert Memorial and all its belongings, that building, at least, has claims as a work of Art which must not be regarded with apathy or self-content. It is, except the restored Sainte-Chapelle, by far the most splendid of modern Gothic structures; more pretending than the Parisian example, it is more original. With all its architectural defects it is void of may that the permission given to Böttger was an in- ARTISTS will be glad to learn that a school for M'Lean, Haymarket, is the London agent, has Ar the last meeting of the Academy of San us the iron conventionality of its allied memorial, THE centenary of Thorwaldsen's birth has been celebrated at Copenhagen. WE have received from Messrs. Cassell, Petter & Galpin The Elements of Practical Perspective,' by Mr. Ellis A. Davidson. This is one of "Cassell's Technical Manuals"; it is an excellent work of its kind, completely adapted for those who wish for simple and practical instruction in the working of perspective, with no more of theory than suffices to enable the student to comprehend the subject: the studies, or rather examples, quoted in the text before us are discriminatingly graduated, so as to lead the reader from stage to stage in the elementary course to which the text is devoted. The diagrams are at once well selected-this is a very important feature and well drawn; they are also simple and comprehensive in the way in which they direct attention to the practice of the science in question. It is a very useful little book. EXAMPLES of the employment of eminent engravers in producing maps, and of the employment of such maps for military purposes, such as the Prussians have found profitable in France, are to be found at an unexpectedly early period in the history of map-engraving. In the Print Room, British Museum, the reader may see a very rare volume preserved in a case, and thus entitled: 'Six Mappes Portable for euery Mans Pocket, Vsefull for all Comanders for Quarteringe of Souldiers & all sorts of Persons that would be informed Where the Armies be; neuer so Commodiously drawne before this 1644; described by one that trauailed throughout the whole Kingdome for its purpose. Sold by Thomas Jenner at the South entrance of ye Exchange. W. Hollar fecit.' These "Mappes" are very elaborately constructed, and contain a surprising amount of information, espe IN 1837 the painter Cornelius presented the Bibliographical Institute of Hildburghausen the right of reproducing his frescoes in the Glyptothek at Munich, under the stipulation, "with the approbation of His Majesty King Louis the First." The reproductions were never pecuniarily successful, and their sale was more particularly injured by the photographs of the frescoes which Böttger pub-cially relating to the southern and western parts of lished, with the King's permission, in his 'Monuments of King Louis the First.' The Institute has brought an action for damages against the present King, as heir of the old monarch, on the ground this island; the west of Cornwall is omitted. MUSIC SACRED HARMONIC SOCIETY, Exeter Hall-Conducter. S MICHAEL COSTA-FRIDAY NEXT. December 16, to celeb the Centenary of the Birth of the Composer, Beethoven's MASS in C and MOUNT OF OLIVES will be performed. Principal Vocalist Madame Sinico, Malle. Drasdil, Mr. Vernon Rigby, and Mr. Levis Thomas.-Tickets, 38., 58., and 108. 6d, at 6, Exeter Hall Christmas Performances of Messiah,' Dec. 23 and 30.-Tickets ready. BENEDICT'S ST. PETER, at ST. JAMES'S HALL, on TUES. DAY EVENING, December 13, at Eight. Mdlle. Titiens, Madne Patey, Mr. Sims Reeves, Mr. Raynham, Herr Stockhausen, and Mr. Barnby's Choir. Conductor, Mr. Benediet. "It is long, very long, since such an oratorio has been written." "Mr. Benedict has achieved a great thing; or, in other words, be ta Tina written the finest oratorio since Elijah."-Daily Telegraph. St. Peter' will be acknowledged as Mr. Benedict's chef as a work which nobly crowns all his previous labours."-Standard Sofa-stalls, 218.; Area-stalls, 108. 6d. and 58.; Balcony-stalls, la 78. and 58.; Balcony, 38.; admission, 28., at Novello's, 1, Berters ste and 35, Poultry, the principal Music-sellers', and Austin's, St. James Hall. MADAME ALBONI. It is not owing to the war that the celebrated contralto Madame Alboni returns to her professional career. After her marriage with the late Count Popoli, she lived for some years in Paris in private, refusing the most tempting offers to sing again in public. At the funeral service of her earliest friend, Rossini, she consented to appear, and, associated with Madame Patti (La Marquise de Caux), the duet Quis est Homo,' from the 'Stabat Mater was given by the two artistes with a perfection of voice and style which thrilled the vast assemblage in the church, and caused the venerable Auber to widow of Rossini the proprietary right in the shed tears. The speculator who bought from the 'Messe Solennelle,' with the view of its performance in various countries, either in theatres or concertrooms, with or without the adjunct of secular music, induced Madame Alboni to be the contralto of his travelling troupe. It was on the first execu tion of the Mass at the Italian Opera House in Paris, on the 28th of February, 1869, after the original score had been added to by strange hands, that Madame Alboni re-appeared. But for her singing of the interpolated solo, the O Salutaris,' the performance would have been a failure. Madame Krauss, the soprano, is a good musician, but has not a sympathetic organ; and Signori Nicolini and Agnesi, the tenor and bass, sang very indifferently, whilst band and chorus were very bad. But the Rossinian mania was strong in Paris, and the Mass was financially a success for the investor, who transferred his right of representa tion in this country to opera-house directors. It is sad to think that a solemn service should be thus profanely turned to account. The programme in St. James's Hall, on the 7th instant, exhibited a strange mixture-the Mass in the first part, and a miscellaneous selection in the second section; the 'Ave Maria' of Cherubini being followed by 'My pretty Jane' of Bishop, and the scheme winding up with the quartett from Flotow's Marta.' Surely the Mass, with Madan Alboni's return therein, might have sufficed to fix the attention of a London musical audience in these days. The "cast" of the Mass was certainly the strongest yet heard in this country, a it included Mdlle." Tietjens and Madame Albor Sims Reeves and Herr Nordblom (tenors), and Signor Foli (bass). Madame Alboni, who, before she left the stage, sang soprano as well as contralto parts, resumed her natural position in the Mass, re signing, however, the' O Salutaris' to Mdlle. Tiet jens. The voice of Madame Alboni cannot be expected to retain the rich, sonorous, and sympathet timbre which she possessed when she first steppe on the Covent Garden boards, in 1847, at the inauguration of the Royal Italian Opera, as Arsh in Semiramide'; strain on the high notes f soprano music has affected the once luscious qua of the lower ones; but once an artist, always artist. Madame Alboni is still the refined exe plification of the great and pure Italian school of vocalization. In the 'Agnus Dei,' the enthusias of her hearers was at its height. If the lady poses to continue her career, she will be th welcome. The inferiority of the Mass to 'Stabat Mater' begins now to be freely admitted A FORMIDABLE programme has been issued for the season which is to be commenced at the Lyceum Theatre on the 2nd of January next. As the subscription is to be either for twenty-four, forty-eight, or seventy-two representations, it is evident that the directors (Signor Tito Mattei, who is also musical director and conductor, Signor Verger, the opera agent of Paris, and Mr. C. Hutchings, the music publisher,) are serious in their intentions to carry out their pledges; but it will require no small amount of exertion to redeem them, even qualified as the prospectus is by the nautical caution, "wind and weather permitting." To promise to adhere to arrangements as strictly as circumstances will permit" is a phrase so often used, and abused, by Impresarios, that reserve on the part of amateurs has been extended to suspicion. It is much better, and more honest too, to keep within bounds in the enumeration of new works to be mounted and of old operas to be revived, than to publish a long list which practical men know cannot be gone through. Now, of the old répertoire, what is specified? By Rossini, L'Italiana in Algeria,' 'Il Conte Ory,' 'Cenerentola,' 'Il Barbiere,' 'Il Turco in Italia,' and 'La Gazza Ladra'; by Donizetti, 'Don Pasquale,' 'La Figlia,' 'Linda,' 'L'Elisir d' Amore'; by Mozart, Così fan Tutti' and 'Don Giovanni'; by the brothers Ricci, Crispino e la Comare' and 'Un Avventura de Scaramuccia'; by Cimarosa, 'Il Matrimonio Segreto'; and by Gnecco, La Prova d'un Opera Seria.' The operas not hitherto heard in this country which are mentioned in the programme are: Ali Baba,' by Signor Bottesini, the double-bass player; 'Il Carnevale di Venezia,' by Signor Petrella; 'Don Checco,' by De Giosa; 'Tutti in Maschera,' by Carlo Pedrotti; I Falsi Monetari,' by Lauro Rossi; 'Cecco e Cola,' by A. Buonomo and E. Geli; 'Giannina e Bernardone,' by Cimarosa; and 'Piedigrotta,' by one of the Riccis. Thus there are sixteen old operas and eight new ones -twenty-four works, all of which will require, with a newly-formed troupe of singers and players, no ordinary number of rehearsals. Making, however, a very liberal discount on the amount of pledges, the prospectus is one of unusual interest. The composers new to this country have been those who, for the last few years, have been prominent in Italy; Pedrotti, Petrella, Lauro Rossi, &c. have been much talked of, and there will be curiosity to test their foreign popularity. Bottesini is known, both here and in Paris, as a clever composer; he has entered the lists, in setting 'Ali Baba,' with Cherubini; but as the work by the latter has not been given in London, the contrabasso will not have to challenge comparisons with the contrapuntist. The singers engaged are, Mesdames Calisto, Brusa, Monari, Scasi, Faullo, Bedetti, and Moro; Signori Piccioli, Seneca, Fabbri, Torelli, Fallar, Boretti, Rocco, Borella, and Ristori. Many of these artists are known to travellers and opera-house frequenters in Italy. With the exception of Signor Fallar, a second basso from Covent Garden, the company will be entirely new here. Band and chorus have been selected from the ordinary metropolitan sources. As regards costumes and stage arrangements, the statements are promising. It will be seen there is no pretension as to grand opera: opera-buffa is to be the basis of action, with a view to render it a regular institution in London; just what Mr. Mitchell vainly essayed to do more than thirty years since at the Lyceum, with Puzzi and Mr. Benedict as his musical advisers. MONDAY POPULAR CONCERTS. THE fourth Beethoven programme was an abandonment of the quartet classification; there were the string Quintet in c major, Op. 29, composed in 1801, and the trio in G major, Op. 1, No. 2, for pianoforte, violin, and violoncello the second of the three trios written in 1791-2, and standing first in the list of the published works. Besides these two early productions, the Pastoral Sonata in D major, Op. 28, for pianoforte, and the Sonata in G minor, Op. 5, No. 2, for piano and violoncello, were given. The system of illustration adopted by the director is therefore progressive not assuredly in point of ability-for these chamber compositions contain prominent points of interest indicative of the composer's genius, but successive in point of time. The Quintet and the Pastoral Sonata carried off the honours of the evening; the executants at which were Madame Arabella Goddard, Herr Straus, Herr Ries, Messrs. Barber and Hann, and Signor Piatti. Herr Stockhausen was the vocalist; he sang five of Beethoven's songs, and was called upon to repeat the Scotch ones. BEETHOVEN, THE VOLUNTEERS AND ACROBATS. JUDGING by the sounds of various languages in the grand promenade of the Sydenham GlassHouse, on the 3rd inst., the number of foreigners present must have been very large. In the ordinary course of Crystal Palace entertainments, the attraction might be ascribed to the series of Beethoven Concerts, which will terminate on the 17th inst. with the centenary celebration of the composer's birth; but continental visitors, who attended with the notion that they were to listen to the eighth Symphony in F, to the pianoforte Concerto in c (assumed to be his first for that instrument, but which was the second of the series), and to the Liederkreis, the six love outpourings, sung by our leading English tenor, must have relied too much on our being a musical nation. Beethoven, to a select circle of ardent amateurs and professional pundits, doubtless would account for a fair proportion of the auditory in the concert area; but the Crystal Palace Company is commercial in its notions, and the thousands in the transept, nave and galleries regarded Saturday's printed programme from a spectacular point of view. The Preface of this official document was thus worded:-" Programme of the Tenth Saturday Concert and Distribution of the Regimental and other Prizes of the London Rifle Brigade, by the Lady Mayoress, in the presence of the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs and UnderSheriff (who will attend in state), and other distinguished visitors." The writer of the Beethoven programme was as imposing in his peroration as in his exordium; it is too remarkable not to be recorded in the Athenæum:-"After the Presentation, Señores Gonza and Romah, the Mexican Athletes of the Golden Wing (from El Teatro Ruber, Mexico), will give their new majestic performance on the High Bars." Explanatory notes were appended, as to "fixed bars" and transitions from "bar to bar," and it was also added, that the "apparatus is patented"; the key thereto not being specified. From high art to low art, there is only the gradation from the sublime to the ridiculous. Would it not have been as well to have postponed the Beethoven Concert, and to have allowed the Volunteers, the City magnates and the acrobats the undisturbed possession of the Palace for the day? What a medley it was! The trumpet rappels at times, to call the Rifles to take up position in front of the Handelian organ-the drums rolling, as a singer was in the midst of an air-the full Volunteer bands coming in during the Symphony with forcible crash: it was a Babel Concert, not a Beethoven one. an The clever commentator who supplies the analysis of the programme seems to have had a misgiving as to the consequences of the mixed entertainment, as, in his note to the finale of the Pianoforte Concerto, he states that it is " admirable example of gaiety and vivacity, in connexion with which an attack of colic is one of the last things that would suggest itself." The band seemed to be infected with the strange noises of the day; being flurried, their play was hurried; the tempi were hastened to a scramble in the fast movements. A new Overture, by Herr Hiller, of Cologne, to Schiller's 'Demetrius,' fared worse than Beethoven. The work was heard for the first time here, but so coarsely executed, that it would be an act of injustice to such a composer to hazard any decided opinion as to its real merits. Mr. Sims Reeves gave the six love-songs with admirable accent, delicate expression and marked refinement; even the lassitude of style which is growing on him became an adjunct of beauty in the lovely strains of the lover's plaint, the accompaniments to which were nicely played by Mr. Sullivan. Mdlle. Scalchi, who was the other vocalist, introduced, between the 'Egmont' Overture and the Pianoforte Concerto, Cenerentola's rondo finale: it was badly played and ill sung; she was more happy in the contralto air from Meyerbeer's 'Dinorah,' ,"Fanciulle," which came after Mr. Sims Reeves had sung the Prodigal Son's remorseful scena, "How many hired servants," from Mr. Sullivan's clever Cantata. Herr Pauer, an able and conscientious artist, was the pianist: he modestly selected the Concerto in c, one of Beethoven's earliest and weakest works, and Weber's Rondo in E flat, Op. 62. The concert was under a cloud; and Beethoven ought not to have been associated with Gog and Magog, Gonza and Romah. ROYAL ALBERT HALL. The Council of the Society of Arts has adopted the report of the Musical Committee, who are authorized to carry out the arrangements for a series of concerts to be given annually in the Royal Albert Hall. The report recommends that a musical section of the society be instituted, with a separate fund, in order to provide musical entertainments, at which vocal and instrumental music of the highest character will be performed. The main object is to establish a National Training School for Music out of the profits of the concerts. Members of the Society of Arts will have certain advantages accruing to them by a guinea subscription to the musical fund. The Committee have invited Sir Michael Costa to meet its members, to discuss the necessary details; and a guarantee fund has been commenced, to assure the society against loss. Among the names already given in are those of men distinguished in art, science, and literature. The acoustic properties of the hall were tested last Saturday, in presence of the Queen and the Princess Beatrice; voices and instruments were tried, and the result of the experiment was pronounced to be satisfactory. What it will be when the hall is filled, cannot be predicted; amateurs who have been curious in trying various concert-halls, both at home and abroad, relate singular contradictions as to the conveyance of sound, the travel of which is peculiarly eccentric. Mendelssohn was very much astonished to find that the extreme corner at the summit of the Town Hall gallery in Birmingham, on the left side, looking from the orchestral platform, was the best place for hearing when the hall was quite filled, and the worst when it was empty. ST. PAUL' AND 'ST. PETER.' A SLIP of the pen made in the last week's reference to Elijah' may be corrected. The arranger of the book, as the recently-published collection of Mendelssohn's letters attests, was Pastor Schubring, of Dessau, largely assisted by the superintendence and suggestion of the composer himself: see particularly pp. 367-8-9. Mr. Bartholomew was only the translator. When I wrote of 'St. Peter,' a week or two since, I overlooked a fact which turned up while I was verifying the correction just given. Mendelssohn did not reject the idea of setting the story without having carefully considered it, since in an earlier letter to Pastor Schubring (pp. 120-1-2) of the same collection, he expresses a wish," in connexion with a greater plan for a later oratorio, "to bring the two chief apostles and pillars of the Christian Church side by side in oratorios; in short, that I should have a 66 66 St. Peter' as well as a 'St. Paul.' I need not tell you," he continues, "that there are sufficient internal grounds to make me prize the subject, and far above all stands the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, which must form the central point or chief object." The letter goes on to consult with Pastor Schubring as to whether what is said of St. Peter in the Bible is alone and in itself sufficiently important to form the basis of a symbolical oratorio, for, according to my feeling, the subject must not be treated historically, however indispensable this was in the case of 'St. Paul." The peculiar view above stated as having been taken by Mendelssohn, and the difficulties involved in the working it out with clearness and variety, may account for his abandon ment of the idea. I was, of course, unaware of the matter when I prepared the outline of an oratorio book to submit to him-a purpose never carried out. While talking over the opinions and plans of one of the most thoughtful men who ever adorned music, I may be permitted, in further reference to what has been lately put forth, to quote from by-past notices of my own last conversations with Mendelssohn, at Interlachen, in August, 1847. I went thither to talk over an opera-book to be founded on the 'Winter's Tale'-"We have no one," said he, "in Germany who can write opera-books. If Kotzebue had been alive he had ideas," and he warmed himself up as he talked, by recalling how a prosaic occasion of mere parade-the opening of the new theatre at Pesth-could inspire Kotzebue with such a characteristic invention as his 'Ruins of Athens'-so good for Beethoven to set. This was barely two months before his decease. H. F. CHORLEY. Musical Gossip. THE playing of Mr. Carter, an organist from London, is eulogized in the Berlin journals; he performed pieces by Bach, Haydn and Mendelssohn, at a charitable concert in the St. Peterkirche. MDLLE. ARTOT (Signora Padilla) has been singing at Bremen in the 'Huguenots.'-Fräulein Orgeni playing of Fräulein Emma Brandes is frequently has been singing at Bremen.-The clever pianoforte referred to in the North German papers.-A loncellos, Op. 18, by Johannes Brahms, may Sextuor for two violins, two violas, and two vioperhaps attract the notice of the Musical Union or Monday Popular Concerts. THERE will be a Beethoven week in Leipzig, HERR JOACHIM has resigned his post as Principal THE new Alice in Meyerbeer's 'Roberto il Diavolo is the Mdlle. Corani who made her first appearance at the Crystal Palace concert of the 22nd of October last, when she sang the "Air du Sommeil" from the Africaine,' and Bolero from Verdi's 'Vêpres Siciliennes.' The opinion expressed in the Athenæum, tore,' which has lately been performed with much Ar the Teatro Rossini, Venice, Verdi's 'Trovathat her style is better adapted to the stage than to concert singing, is confirmed by her appearance as success, gives way to the opera Ione,' by Signor the Norman Maid, who saves the soul of her foster-Petrella, which was brought out lately. Ione has brother. Her energy must be subdued, and she has been recently given at Florence, and the part of to acquire more finish in her scales and more rethe heroine was most ably represented by Signora finement in her method; but Mdlle. Corani is Bianchi Montaldo. The Rivista Europea speaks of gifted with a fine voice; and she is likely to prove the tenor, Signor Bulterini, who has sung in London, a valuable addition to the list of dramatic singers, "possessed of a splendid voice, but failing in and as she is Irish by birth, her position in a accuracy of accent and in the proper use of light national opera-house would be important. With and shade." such a cast and ensemble as Meyerbeer's masterpiece presented at Covent Garden last Tuesday night, it is perhaps better to preserve silence; when things come to the worst, there is the chance of amendment, and grand opera has sunk to the lowest degree. THE programme of the Oratorio Concerts for the third season, conducted by Mr. Barnby, promises Bach's oratorio, The Passion,' Mendelssohn's "Elijah,' Beethoven's Mass in D, Spohr's 'Calvary,' one of Handel's Chandos anthems, Mendelssohn's Psalm, "When Israel out of Egypt came," Mr. Benedict's 'St. Peter,' Herr Hiller's Cantata, 'Nala and Damayanti,' Mr. Henry Smart's 'Bride of Dunkerron,' and a new work by Mr. Barnby. Many of the works just cited are exceedingly difficult, and will require numerous and very careful rehearsals. Now, as the first concert is announced for the 15th of February, it is evident that the novelties must come during the height of the season,-a very bad period to mount new works. SOME modifications in musical degrees have been passed in Congregation at the University of Oxford. The statute enacts that two public examinations will be required for candidates for the degree of Mus. Bac.-one in October Term, the next in Easter or Trinity Term. The exercise can be sent in after the first examination, and must be approved, not only by the Professor, but by the Choragus and the third examiner. The first examination will be in four-part harmony and counterpoint, and the second in five-part counterpoint, instrumentation, history of music, and in the construction of such works of the great masters as shall, from time to time, be named by the Professor. THE South Norwood Musical Society commenced its season with a performance of Mr. John Barnett's Cantata, 'Paradise and the Peri.' MR. ROBERT HILTON, of the Preston Church Choir, has been nominated Vicar-Choral in Westminster Abbey, in place of the late Mr. Machin. FRÄULEIN BUBENICZEK, a pupil of M. Wartel, of Paris, the master of Mdlle. Nilsson, has made successful appearances at the Royal Opera-House, in Berlin, as Leonora, in Verdi's Troubadour, and the heroine in Gounod's 'Romeo and Juliet.' Fräulein Brandt was Azucena in the 'Trovatore.' as A NEW Opera, by Signor Cortesi, is in rehearsal at the Pagliano Theatre, and will be produced immediately. SIGNOR MARCHETTI'S opera, Ruy Blas,' has been lately produced at the Pergola Theatre, with great success. The Italie states that all the artistes were most favourably received, and that the fine duet of the third act was encored. Signor Romani conducted the orchestra. The Sonnambula' is to be given for the first appearance of Mdlle. Jairvis, AT the Santa Radegonda Theatre, of Milan, the THE American papers are anything but unanimous in their estimation of the claims of Mdlle. Nilsson as a singer; complaint is made-a very old one, no doubt, as regards vocalists-that she takes unwarrantable liberties with the text, and that she is by no means a great singer. The reply to these detractors is, that she "draws" more money than ever Jenny Lind did. MUSIC at Melbourne is gaining ground. When it is stated that Meyerbeer's Africaine' and the Huguenots' are performed at the Opera House, and Mendelssohn's Elijah' and Reformation Symphony at the Philharmonic Society, progress must be the watchword in Victoria. DRAMA GLOBE THEATRE. A NEW drama, entitled 'Écarté,' the authorship of which is attributed to Lord Newry, was produced on Saturday at this house, and met with a very unfavourable reception. 'Ecarté' is commonplace in dialogue, old in story, clumsy in construction, and void of any form of dramatic merit. Four tedious acts are occupied in the process of unmasking a villain, undertaken by its hero; and the pauses in the necessary action are filled by old-fashioned scenes of repartee between comic servants, of the most conventional type. Whatever char success a piece of this description might ↑5was in this instance ruined by the acting or two parts were adequately sustained; Eat W Fairclough, Miss Alleyne, and other member the company over-acted or ranted in most la able fashion. Piece and performance were a unsatisfactory, and the first night's exhibition one of those things with which criticism c attempt to deal, and over which regard for t stage bids us draw a veil. HOLBORN THEATRE. A DRAMA, in three acts, has been produced: the Holborn Theatre, with the title of Jezebel the Dead Reckoning.' In 'Le Pendu,' a play M. Michel Masson, the literary garçon de en and M. Anicet-Bourgeois, produced, in 1854, at th Ambigu-Comique, the author, Mr. Boncicault, Le found the main portion of his plot. Alterations really considerable have been made, however, in the conduct of the story, and the third act is altogethe: the play remains sufficiently melo-dramatic to re different from the original. In its amended shap the scene of its first production, and seems better suited for the Eastern and transpontine houses, which more than one version of it has appe enlisting fairly the attention of the house, & than for its new home. It was successful, howeve securing for its heroine a respectable amount of sympathy. Still it is a weak piece, hingeing upon a series of impossibilities; clever rather than dra tic in its dialogue, and faulty in that which is its adapter's strong point, construction. A first act melo-dramatic but effective, is succeeded by a sec absolutely dull, and a third which oscillates in very curious fashion between melo-drama and farce. T whole forms a type of the kind of play which obta a half-success, holding its position for a while in the bills, then disappearing, to be heard of no mor Jezebel, its heroine, belongs to the melo-drama of the past. The character in fiction she most closely resembles is Milady Winter, in the 'Trois Mos quetaires.' She is cruel, voluptuous, false, vengef murderous; compounded, in fact, of so many bal qualities that the author is compelled, in orde to bring her within the pale of probability, to represent her as a half-breed, with a strong cum: of Indian blood in her veins. Chance gives her an opportunity of wreaking considerable mis chief. Her position is that of maid to a lady of fortune. Her mistress, while crossing from Mexico George D'Artigues, a wealthy merchant, is drowned. to Bordeaux for the purpose of marrying a certain Pauline, who is almost the sole survivor of the wreck, claims the name and property of the dead woman, and finds herself compelled in order to suppor the character she has assumed to fulfil the matrimonial obligations of her mistress. The monotony of her married life in Bordeaux soon becomes intolerable to her. The Indian blood within her ment, when her husband ascertains what are her rises against restraint, and she is meditating elopepurposes. Between D'Artigues and his wife little love has been lost. He has married her in order to save his honour, loving all the while a young been contracted, and whom he has not yet told of German maiden, Gretchen, to whom he has once his marriage. ference has ripened into aversion. When she With Madame D'Artigues indif finds that her secret is known, and that George meditates slaying her paramour, she is driven to desperation. She makes an attempt to poison her husband, but is detected by him. He lets her think it successful, however, and Madame D'Artigues leaves France for Mexico, convinced that she is a murderess and a widow. What follows may briefly be told. Believing that he will hear no more of his tormentress, D'Artigues ventures on bigamy, ard lives for a while in comfort with his first love. Far off in Mexico, however, Pauline hears of his existence and marriage. As her only reason for staying from Europe has been fear of arrest for murder, she returns and drops like a thunderbolt into the house of the unfortunate merchant. part of the woman who has thought herself till A strong display of agony and heroism on the now a wife, is followed by the revelation not only of the imposition to which the new-comer owes her name, but of the fact of her having contracted a previous marriage, which acquits D'Artigues of all liability towards her. If so hurried a sketch of the story is not very comprehensible, it is at least as luminous as the play, portions of which, owing to the compression that has been exercised, are almost unintelligible. It conceals, moreover, some of the more glaring improbabilities of the plot, without quite bringing it, however, within the range of the probable. There is no characterization in 'Jezebel,' and no great originality of motive. Madame D'Artigues and her Mexican brother are but extravagant copies of the heroine of M. Augier's play of 'L'Aventurière,' and her spadassin companion and protector. The other characters are colourless in the original, or become so in process of adaptation. Incident and situation alone save the piece, and of these, however obtained, there is much. Some of the situations even are not quite original. The poisoning scene in the first act is strong, but recalls situations in 'The Isle of St. Tropez' and other plays. In the third act there are one or two striking and novel positions, but farce is blended rather dangerously with sentiment, and a sense of absurdity and improbability mars the spectator's enjoyment. As Jezebel, Miss Katherine Rodgers showed real power. Her bearing in the various scenes-some of them sufficiently stormy-through which she passed was good, quiet and resolved, and the character she played became in her hands almost endurable. Miss Foote was so good as the second wife of D'Artigues that one could not but marvel at the bad husbandry that left her unemployed until the last act. Mr. Neville's impersonation of D'Artigues was quiet and effective. Mr. Parselle, as Captain Breitmann, gave a fairly satisfactory representation of one of the most difficult and objectionable of stage types, the cheery and hilarious old man. No sign of success was wanting to the first representation. OPÉRA COMIQUE. THE latest appearance of Mdlle. Déjazet has been in Les Pistolets de mon Père,' a comédie-vaudeville, by M. Flor O'Squarr, behind which wonderful pseudonym is supposed to hide a clever contributor to the minor Parisian press. The piece approaches more nearly broad farce than the majority of the plays in which Mdlle. Déjazet is accustomed to appear. It is lively, however, and suited to the talents of the actress for whom it was written. Its time is the later days of Louis the Fourteenth, and its scene the house of a certain Vicomte de Gersac, holder of an influential position at court. Nothing can be gloomier or more correct than the régime established by the Vicomte, who, with courtier-like instinct, follows the example of austerity set under the direction of Madame de Maintenon, by the monarch now moribund. More than one of the household find things little to their taste; Le Chevalier Raoul especially, the son of the Vicomte, refuses to yield even an appearance of acquiescence in the system adopted. He makes love within doors to Berthe, the pretty daughter of his father's intendant, and without doors to every woman he can come near, and he even fights a duel before he has obtained his father's permission to wear a sword. Nothing less than a short imprisonment in the Bastille, with the opportunity for reflection thus afforded, will, in the opinion of the Vicomte, suit such behaviour, and a lettre de cachet is applied for and obtained. But in the box in which his father keeps his now unused pistols, the Chevalier, prying here as elsewhere, comes upon a love correspondence. From this he learns that the youth of the Vicomte has not been immaculate. Acting on the knowledge he has obtained, the Chevalier dresses himself in feminine costume and presents himself to his father as an old and forgotten mistress. Subsequently he confronts him as a daughter of whose existence the astonished Vicomte was, as might be supposed, unaware. In the course of these masqueradings the Chevalier obtains such confessions from his father as render difficult the maintenance of paternal authority, and, proof of the young man's fitness to guide himself without leading-strings coming from another quarter, the Vicomte consents at length to accord the scapegrace a measure of liberty. In this piece Mdlle. Déjazet is seen in two feminine characters, which she enacts with a nearer approach to exaggeration than she exhibits in her ordinary assumptions. These characters, however, be it observed, are not absolutely female. The curiously involved position is, that a woman playing a man represents that man playing a woman. In representations of the old drama, when women were played by boys, it not seldom occurred that a boy presented a girl playing a boy. M. Georges was very good as the Vicomte, M. Tourtois satisfactory as the intendant, and Mdlle. Riel very graceful and pleasant as Berthe. After the vaudeville, a burlesque, by Mr. W. S. Gilbert, called 'The Elixir of Love,' was produced. This proves to be an old piece entitled 'Doctor Dulcamara,' re-arranged so as to include the principal music of 'L'Elisir d' Amore.' The performance introduced to the English stage a soprano from America, a Miss Geraldine Warden, and an English tenor, a Mr. J. W. Turner. To pit a representation of English burlesque against French acting is a dangerous experiment, and the result was, as might be expected, unsatisfactory. WE regret to chronicle the death of Mr. F. Younge, which took place in a railway accident, on Tuesday last. Mr. Younge made his first appearance in London as an actor more than twenty years ago. After a long absence in Australia he returned, and obtained considerable popularity by his performances in Mr. Robertson's comedies, at the Prince of Wales's Theatre. At the time of his death Mr. Younge was travelling with a company especially engaged for the performance of Mr. Robertson's plays in the country. Miss Martell, an actress of the company, sustained severe injuries in the same accident. MISS HELEN FAUCIT has taken her leave of the Glasgow stage, where she has been a great favourite. Her last appearance was as Julia, in 'The Hunchback, but she has also played Lady Macbeth, Pauline, and Rosalind. A LETTER from Versailles, published in the Moniteur Prussien, describes a fete champêtre organized by the Prussians at Arnonville, in the picturesque park of the Comte de Choiseul. An open-air theatre was improvised, and patriotic songs were sung, in which allusions to the events of the day were frequent. In a comic scene played by the Hussars, the Emperor Napoleon was represented as paying his respects to Madame Germania, a stalwart lady six feet high. In the midst of this scene, however, a couple of shells from Fort St. Denis fell at no very great distance from the spectators, and brought the proceedings to a hasty close. AT the Volkstheater of Munich several new operettas and light pieces have been brought out; and in a higher rank of dramatic art should be mentioned Herr Rosen's Kanonenfutter,' and Herr Alexander Ringler's 'Palm,' both of which have been performed for the first time with success. 'WULLENWEVER' is the title of a new dramatic work in five acts, by Herr Heinrich Kruse, the author of the 'Gräfin.' The piece takes its name from Jürgen Wullenwever, the popular orator and Burgomaster of Lübeck, the capital of the Hanseatic League, and refers to his successful attempts to revive and support the influence of the League shortly before its extinction. It is published by S. Hirzel, at Leipzig. 'DER PFARRER VON KIRCHFELD,' a four-act drama, has been performed with great success at Vienna. Its subject is in accordance with the spirit of the age, the characters are well drawn, and the local colouring admirably preserved. KARL MARIA VON WEBER is the hero of a new drama, in five acts, written by Herr Hugo Busse. It was only recently that the author of 'Der Freischütz' was made the subject of a novel, and now the same fate, to which great musical composers seem to be destined, has befallen him. The other day a new drama, by Signor Pietro Cossa, entitled Beethoven,' was performed in Italy. AT the new Théâtre des Variétés, in Brussels, a novelty has been produced, entitled 'Stella, ou le Geolier Prussien. This drama consists of eight tableaux, and an intermède of ballet. A NEW Comedy, 'Vera Paternità,' has been enthusiastically received at the Theatre Niccolini, and the author was, according to the Italian papers, called four times before the curtain. This far surpasses the applause of the most conventional first nights in our theatres; perhaps the Italians have given a hint which will not be lost sight of. SIGNOR SALVINI, the eminent Italian tragedian, will appear at the Alfieri Theatre, of Turin, in Soumet's 'Il Gladiatore.' 'I DUE GEMELLI,' the new drama lately given at the Gerbino Theatre, Turin, has, notwithstanding the excellent acting of Signor Maione and Signora Marini, met with a cold reception from the public. THE Milanese papers announce that M. Offenbach has determined to found a special theatre in Italy for comic operettas, féeries, &c., and that he has succeeded in obtaining the Teatro de la Canobbiana for a period of three years. 'MONTE CHRISTO' has had a long run at the Globe Theatre, Boston. It is to be followed by Hamlet,' with the following cast: Hamlet, Mr. Fechter; Ghost, Mr. J. W. Wallack; Laertes, Mr. C. H. Vandenhoff; Ophelia, Miss Carlotta Leclercq. CHARLES BURKE JEFFERSON, a son of the wellknown American comedian, has accepted an engagement as low comedian at the Varieties Theatre, New Orleans. MR. and MRS. BANDMANN have been playing at Victoria in Hamlet,' 'Much Ado about Nothing,' and 'The Duke's Motto.' Mr. Bandmann made, on one occasion, a speech thanking the critics for their verdict upon his acting, but complaining with some bitterness of their silence concerning the merit of his wife. The effect of so ill-judged a proceeding has been the substitution, in the press, of censure upon Mrs. Bandmann's acting for silence concerning it. A DRAMA, entitled 'Sun and Shadow,' written by Mr. Cooper, a native of Sydney, is the latest novelty at the Theatre Royal, Victoria. It is scarcely a success. Its scene is Australia, but the incidents and characters are destitute of local colour; and its action might with perfect ease be transferred to England. ANTIQUARIAN NOTES. Playing Cards.-It has occurred to me that the usual playing-cards might be improved; and I communicated my idea on the subject to a celebrated card-maker, but he shook his head, and observed, the public would not accept it. Knowing by experience that the public have accepted other improvements which I have suggested or supported, which were thought at the instant to be ridiculous and impracticable, I venture to send my suggestion for you to ventilate. When I was young, Kings, Queens and Knaves had feet, and it was the constant habit to turn the card in our hands, so that |
